Ten people were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly running call centres that deceived US citizens by impersonating the technical support team of a well-known company, police said.
The fraudulent call centres were located in different parts of the city.
As reported by the police, the accused were making VoIP calls to US residents, impersonating employees of an international company and providing misleading assurances of technical support.
Two such call centres were located in a high-rise building in Entally.
Police sources said the modus operandi — targeting foreign nationals — was common as the victims find it difficult to trace their stolen funds and refrain from lodging complaints after realising the criminals belong to a different continent.
“However, there are cases where an Indian investigating agency has been able to contact and convince the victims to lodge a formal complaint and record their statement through video conferencing to strengthen their case,” said a senior Kolkata Police officer.
The detective department’s cyber cell conducted raids and arrested 10 people from two apartments on Tuesday based on specific input.
The police identified the mastermind behind the call centres as Zawed Khan. Khan was among the 10 who were picked up.
A Skoda Slavia and a Mahindra XUV 700, both registered in Khan’s name, were seized along with 10 mobile phones, eight laptops, and a large quantity of gold ornaments.
₹10.15 lakh was seized during the raids along with three registers that purportedly contain the names of possible victims. A property deed for a plot belonging to Khan was also seized, the police said.